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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
SONNET: THE RARITY OF GENIUS, by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH Poem Explanation Poet Analysis Poet's Biography
First Line: While yet my lip was breathing youth's first breath
Last Line: If she spoil thousands making one or two.
Subject(s): Genius
First Line: While yet my lip was breathing youth's first breath
Last Line: If she spoil thousands making one or two.
Subject(s): Genius
WHILE yet my lip was breathing youth's first breath,
Too young to feel the utmost of their spell
I saw Medea and Phaedra in Rachel:
Later I saw the great Elizabeth.
Rachel, Ristori -- we shall taste of death
Ere we meet spirits like these: in one age dwell
Not many such; a century may tell
Its hundred beads before it braid a wreath
For two so queenly foreheads. If it take
AEons to form a diamond, grain on grain,
AEons to crystallize its fire and dew --
By what slow processes must Nature make
Her Shakespeares and her Raffaels? Great the gain
If she spoil thousands making one or two.
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